RVA’s Transgender Day of Remembrance happens this Friday with a new venue and uplifting message

“Too many transgender people are abused, are beaten and ultimately killed just because of who they are,” said Keri Abrams, a local trans-woman, on why she took on a leading role in organizing Richmond’s Transgender Day of Remembrance. “And it shouldn’t happen.”

Transgender Day of Remembrance, or TDoR, is an annual event held to honor transgender individuals who have lost their lives to hate crimes or other anti-trans violence in the last year. It also aims to raise awareness of the issue of transphobic violence.

Now in its 10th year, the organizers behind Richmond’s annual TDoR event have worked hard to help remember those who were lost just being themselves.

The event started in 1999, a year after a Rita Hestor, a transgender woman living in San Francisco, was found murdered. The crime remains unsolved, but the event, and the impacts from her death, has grown exponentially every year since.

Abrams, a member of the James River Transgender Society, attended her first TDoR event in 2009 and said the crowd for Richmond’s event has grown every year. The first local event was held at ROSMY and involved about 20 people. Last year’s TDoR ceremony at the Byrd Theatre saw about 350 people.

TDoR 2014

“From what I have been able to find, we have one of the biggest remembrances in the world,” Abrams said.

This year’s event will be held at Diversity Richmond, yet another switch up from last year and previous religiously affiliated locations before that.

Abrams said the event’s organizers changed to a secular location so individuals who might have had a negative experience with faith communities would feel more comfortable.

“With the rebranding of Diversity Richmond, one of the major realities of them doing that was to be inclusive to the transgender community,” she said about the spot droppings its old name as the ‘Gay Community Center of Richmond.’ “It’s right having it there (now).”

During the TDoR event, names are read off of all the transgender individuals who’ve lost their lives over the last year. Last year, there were over 235 people on the international list, but only about 40 names were read.

Three Virginians were on last year’s list.

Sage Smith, a black trans girl who went missing in November 2012 and has still not been found–a trend which plagues TDoR. Beyond Sage’s disappearance, the murder of Amari Hill, a trans woman of color found murdered last November in a Richmond South Side alley, also remains unsolved.

Abrams said Smith will also be remembered at this year’s event.

This year, 83 names are on the list including a 30-year-old trans woman from Norfolk, Lamia Beard who was shot Jan. 17. This year, 25 names will be read according to Abrams.

As for the 10th annual event, they’re aiming to keep it reverent in tone, but also use it as a chance to celebrate those trans folks still with us.

Abrams described this year’s message as “uplifting and hopeful.”

TDoR 2013

“It’s very depressing when you come in and sit down and you start hearing names read and you start hearing how these people lost their lives, we decided that for mental health and mental wellness of the people coming to attend we didn’t want people leaving more depressed then when they got there,” she said. “People know why they’re there, we don’t need to make their heads explode.”

For this year, speakers will only read the names and hometowns for each individual instead of describing the details of their passing as they had done in previous years.

“We didn’t want someone leaving there feeling so hopeless they’d try to take their life,” she added.

They’re also going to focus more on those affected locally.

“We can do more about awareness and education in Richmond, in Virginia and in the United States than we can in Brazil,” Abrams said, noting that places outside the country were just as equally important, but they want to try and start focusing efforts here.

The organizers are also opening the event up a little more to the rest of the LGBT community. Last year, the Richmond TDoR event was almost exclusively trans-run, but Abrams said this year there are no restrictions.

“If you want to be involved you tell whoever is leading that committee and you can do it,” she said.

Abrams said she will welcome everyone at the event, Bill Harrison, President and Executive Director of Diversity Richmond will speak next, followed by Kenneth Decker, a founding organizer of Richmond’s TDoR, which will lead to the name reading along with a candlelight procession and bells.

TDoR 2013

Jonah Kneff, a VCU student and intern at ROSMY is on the service committee this year and will be one of the speakers who will recite a poem that he’s adapted specifically for the event.

Bethany Pahl, a fellow JRTS member will close the ceremony.

Ted Heck, a volunteer with the Virginia Anti-Violence Project, first got involved with TDoR around 2006 to serve as a voice for himself and others.

“I’m a trans person and I didn’t come out as trans until the end of the 90′s, but I’ve been an activist in the queer community since the early ‘80s,” Heck said. “Early on when I was in college in the late 80′s I knew some people who experienced violence… violence that impacts you as a result of a stigma that comes from a trait or characteristic that you can’t change about yourself…{is} not only damaging to the individual, but it really hurts the whole community because it creates an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.”

TDoR was one of the reasons Heck started the anti-violence project in 2007 and according to him, this year has been one of the worst for violence against trans women of color.

“One of the most important things to be aware of is the likelihood of experiencing violence as a trans woman is pretty high, but once you have other factors especially race and socio-economic status intertwined, those really raise the levels of risk,” Heck said.

“The vast majority of women here in the United States, and probably across the world, have been women of color,” he said. “Especially here in the US, African American {transgender women} for the most part.”

According to The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Project’s most recent report, there were 22 transgender individuals killed in 2015, 19 of which were people of color, 14 of which were African American trans women.

To continue to raise awareness and keep the issue fresh in people’s minds there are other events surrounding Richmond’s main TDoR event.

There will also be an open mic at Sanctuary for anyone interested to perform poetry, spoken word, a dance or other performance to promote trans and queer liberation.

“That’s one of the cool things that’s happened in the last few years,” Heck said. “A lot of community members wanted to do other things around the event to create more awareness and frame things in a more uplifting way.”

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